Roasted Garlic Pumpkin Seeds

Today was the day that we carved our pumpkin and set it out front. My daughter is really into "Hello Kitty", so we decided to go with that for our pumpkin. This is the first time I ever carved a pumpkin without using a pattern. I hand drew the picture onto the pumpkin and carved away. I think I did a pretty good job considering it was my first time without a pattern! I love Halloween! Pumpkins and hayrides and candy (and many extra calories) and children laughing, dressed up in fun costumes. It is such a joyful time! Even with all of the chocolate floating around, my absolute favorite thing to eat is roasted pumpkin seeds. Our medium-sized pumpkin yielded about 2 cups of pumpkin seeds. The great thing about roasted seeds is that are amazing to eat alone or on top of pasta or a salad. I once coated them in chocolate. If you've never had chocolate-coated pumpkin seeds, go try it right now.


Here is our "Hello Kitty" pumpkin:















Ingredients:

• Fresh pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Place the pumpkin pulp and seeds in a very large bowl of cold water. Squeeze the pulp with your hands to help loosen the seeds.  The seeds will rise to the top.

• Skim the seeds with your hands and place them in a small bowl. Pick through carefully to make sure no large pulp chunks remain. Rinse and drain the seeds well.

• In a medium bowl, combine the seeds, butter, olive oil and garlic salt.
• Spread out the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until crunchy
• Allow the seeds to cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheet.  
• Enjoy!